Label: Minimalism

This heart-warming building was one of the mountain huts on Mount Kinabalu and was named after Gunting Bin Lagadan, a Bundu Tuhan-origin Dusun man cum the first documented mountain guide of Mount Kinabalu.

Located between the subalpine Laban Rata ( currently called PanaLaban ) and the alpine zone ( called The Rockface ), it was once became the summit base camp for my school holiday trekking trip in March 1998. In spite of its no-heater rooms and the strict ration of power and water supplies on that moment, living in this hut was an unforgettable theraputic experience. That was the first time I felt and noticed the healing effects that came from both the simplicity of our team’s bedrooms and how beautiful the ethereal silence of the surrounding inside out. So, I voluntarily agreed that clutters in home or anywhere are badly affecting someone’s mental-emotional-spiritual health and how the opposite is the most effective antidote, just before Marie Kondo started spreading KonMari method and the philosophy behind it to people around the world. Somehow, I forgot it once I rejoined the so-called ‘civilization’.

Inside One of The Little Rooms of Gunting Lagadan Hut : Minus-ing other stuff in this picture, this view was the first time I did realized the theraputic effect of a simple, no-clutter environment. Somehow it needs a several years long personal journey to implement minimalistic environment as a part of my lifestyle.

The memory resurfaced after being dormant for so long, when online discussions about decluttering vs uncluttering and being happy with less stuff became the powerful trigger. So, I found a very good reason for saying yes to those ideas and a strong catalyst to implement it by working on my personal space.

Unfortunately, Gunting Lagadan Hut is now in abandonment, after suffering from the beyond-repair damages and unsafe conditions on The Rockface’s old trail due to the earthquake happened in June 5th last year. Sadness filling my emotional space from looking at post-tremor pictures of the hut and its surrounding, and also from the tough decision from the authorities to abandon it, but I was still be able to comprehend the reasons behind the closure.

In different point of view, what had happened is actually a bless in disguise. For so long, I have ‘been programmed’ to associate my emotional attachment(s) to material object(s) rather than the experience(s) that in connection with the object(s). By the latest unfavorable conditions, I have to learn to connect my emotions with the experiences and not the object. In other words, to recognize that objects simply works just as the trigger and not something connected to my emotions. And so, to ease my slow-paced personal journey from a ‘pack-rat’ life to a ‘happy with less stuff’ life.